The Fargo Tapes

My friend Adam Belanoff, who writes on Major Crimes, turns out to be a huge fan of the series Fargo, as well.  He recommended me listening to an interview on PBS's Fresh Air with series creator/writer Noah Hawley and actress Allison Tolman.  I tracked it down, and it was indeed wonderful.  Lots of audio clips from the show, and extremely thoughtful, insightful discussion by Hawley about choices he made.  Plus a great story from Allison Tolman about where her life was before she came out of nowhere for this breakout performance.  And what I didn't know is that she has training from The Second City in Chicago.

If you haven't watched the TV series, the interview is still very interesting about the craft of writing, though it probably won't be all that impactful. (If you do plan to get the DVD and watch, know that there's one plot point given away, though it something that comes in the first episode.)

However, if you do watch the show, you'll be fascinated by this.  I think it's best to listen to before seeing the finale -- not that there's anything given away or even much discuss about it, but it just does a really good job setting things up.

The host here is not the regular Terry Gross, but David Davies instead.